Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The Legend of Hilda: A Ravio Between Shops

Hah, ... what a day. This always happens, when Nintendo does a new Nintendo Direct... information overload. I was expecting some clarification on the whole item shop thing, but we got so much more than just that. A fat Zora queen, a black haired version of Zelda named Hilda, a new Maple, a female Ganondorf and something that appears to be Link's entire family...

Where to start? Well, let's start with Ravio's item shop, who only got "unintentionally inspired" by Nabbit. It finally got confirmed that the whole thing lets you chose the order of dungeons in the game. Finally some non-linearity! I was hoping for this for a while now. Interestingly you can't purchase the items right away, but only rent them.

This is another thing that reminds me of Ancient Stone Tablets. If you don't know, what I'm talking about, Ancient Stone Tablets was a Japanese exclusive Zelda title that got released for the Broadcast Satellaview expansion for the Super Nintendo. In this game they reused the overworld of A Link to the Past to make a new game that takes place some time after A Link to the Past. There are some changes and additions to the overworld including dungeons in new places. And there's a rental shop at Link's house, which lets you rent the Shovel, the Power Glove and a sword upgrade... Sounds familiar, doesn't it? There are many parallels between Ancient Stone Tablets and A Link Between Worlds. But since rarely anyone knows the first game, this will hardly get noticed.

I wonder how the renting will work in this case. With Ancient Stone Tablets the game had a clock and the renting was time based. But this doesn't work here, the items can't just go away after 10 minutes. Or is it more like that you can only rent one item at a time? So, if you want to rent the Hammer, but you're already renting the Fire Rod, you have to give back the Fire Rod first. I guess, this would make the most sense.

Of course such a system would limit you to one item at first. But they said that you can fully purchase the item at one point, which lets you keep it forever. It might be that you have to finish the according dungeon first. So, for example the Tower of Hera requires the Hammer, as we already know. And you can purchase the Hammer only after completing the Tower of Hera.

So, the more dungeons you complete, the more items you are allowed to carry at the same time. I guess, that later dungeons will require multiple items at once. They shown statues of the "Wind Rod" propeller item in front of a new windmill dungeon on the island on Lake Hylia indicating that you need the propeller item there. I could imagine that later dungeons will have more than one item shown at the entrace and that the final dungeon has statues of all items in front of it. That would be cool.

By the way, in the Nintendo Direct video you can actually spot Majora's Mask on the right wall of the shop. This is definitely a way better easter egg than yet another picture of Tingle and it also adds to the mystery of Ravio's character, who seems to be a normal human wearing a mask. And as I thought, he's actually living in Link's old house.

But it still seems like the bomb shop in the Dark/Other World will have a similar role. At least its locations gets treated with similar importance in the screenshots:

You can also spot a bird statues next to the houses. I guess, the Ocarina of Wind will return once again and the warp system will work similar to The Minish Cap. Also, it appears that they gave the monsters in the Dark/Other World their own design, which is not ripped from A Link to the Past.

We've also seen a bunch of new characters, which includes a dark haired version of Zelda with a staff with an inverted Triforce on top. She's probably Zelda's counterpart in the Dark/Other World and her name is "Hilda"... Hilda? Really? Zelda and Hilda? What is this, a new episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch? Come on!

Talking about witches, there seems to be a new version of Maple, who is called Irene. I really hope that she doesn't drop any random Pieces of Heart this time... :D But there's another witch shown in the artwork, who looks oddly familiar:

Seriously? First a they turn King Zora into a fat ugly queen and now a female Ganondorf? I really hope they don't get too carried away with all the gender bender. And I'm afraid that she will end up being yet another "I have to resurrect Ganon" pawn, but we will see about her. If it's a really she...

Also, there's a picture of what appears to be Link's family:

The father is wearing the same clothes, which Link got in the original screenshot of the item shop:

So, they should be related in a way. Maybe this is his little brother and his parents? Would be a new thing. Even though this contradicts my theory that Link is actually an old painting coming to life in this game. But the small boy also reminds me of the Flute Boy from A Link to the Past.

I have mixed feelings about some of the oddities like the female Ganondorf or Princess Hilda, but overall this games looks really promising. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

I really hope that Nintendo doesn't give us too much more info. I think the current mix of curiosity and mystery is making the game interesting enough. There's still some things, which I would like to learn beforehand, mainly if there's any multiplayer, but overall they shouldn't reveal too much this time. With Skyward Sword they spoiled 90% of the game at beforehand and that was really bad for the game.

Of course you can always just avoid any info from Nintendo. Sadly I do not have thix luxury as a reporter working for a Zelda website. Whatever Nintendo gives us, I have to analyse in great detail at beforehand.